COLONIE -- The Times Union has released an application for iPad users, the newspaper's latest advance in making its content available digitally. The app for Apple tablets is free to download, and content will cost nothing for subscribers to the print newspaper. For non-print subscribers, Times Union iPad content will be free for 30 days before reverting to $5.99 monthly.

The Times Union, of course, already has a website, and it provides phone apps that supply that content to Android and Apple cellphones. The newspaper's website now averages 37 million page views monthly.

But the iPad app is different in that it more closely resembles the experience of reading the print newspaper.

"We're going to be in print for a long time," said Times Union Editor Rex Smith. "But this gives people who like reading print the opportunity to experience the vibrancy and immediacy of digital."

The Times Union iPad app is similar to those provided by other newspapers owned by Hearst Corp., including the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle. The apps were developed in-house by Hearst employees, including Albany resident Tom Palmer, editorial design director at the Times Union.

Palmer noted that the app divides the Times Union into sections -- just as the print edition does -- allowing readers to swipe their way past the front page to local, state, sports, business and features content before pausing to touch individual stories.

"This is touch, swipe and tap," Palmer said.

In the morning, each iPad section is likely to resemble those in the morning paper, with the most significant stories played most prominently. But like the website, the iPad content will be updated during the day as news happens.

Times Union for iPad also features slide shows, panoramic images, video, interactive and customizable traffic and weather reports, and blogs.

"More and more readers are accessing news and information on our website and free mobile apps every month," said George R. Hearst III, the newspaper's publisher. "The iPad app is the next step in serving our customers in the Capital Region -- and around the world -- in print, and on the screen."